placestats

Electricity use per person vs. Frequent prayer

Fades after adjusting for income

A country is not a person. Countries where more people are counted as belonging to this group also tend to differ on the other measure, and that is all. It does not follow that the people in the group are the people with the different score. Making that leap is called the ecological fallacy: reading a pattern across places as a fact about individual people. It is the most common misuse of this kind of data. Religion also varies strongly with region, history and national income, so much of what looks religious here is really those. That is what the adjusted figures are for. The religion shares are estimates for two years only, and the survey questions are asked in rounds that can be ten years apart.

Across 77 countries, Electricity use per person and Frequent prayer rise and fall together at r = -0.63 (on a scale from −1 to +1, where 0 means no link). Comparing only countries with similar income (GDP per person) shrinks it to -0.24, which could easily be chance (q = 0.36, allowing for the many pairs tested, and allowing for countries in the same region being alike). So the first figure mostly shows richer countries differing from poorer ones, not a link between these two things. Caution: direction is not consistent across regions.

Comparing countries across the middle half of electricity use per person, 1,610 to 6,050 kWh per person, frequent prayer is 24% of respondents lower at the top of that range than the bottom. Comparing only countries with similar national income, the gap is 11.5% of respondents.

Link before adjusting (r)-0.635p = 5.6e-10 · 77 countries
After adjusting for national income-0.236p = 0.040 · likely range [-0.44, -0.01]
p, allowing for regions0.163standard error 0.149 · 7 regions
Check for luck (q)0.355across 13,797 pairs

How to read these.r runs from −1 (one goes up as the other goes down) to +1 (they rise together), and 0 means no link. Adjusting for national income means comparing countries with the same GDP per person, so differences in wealth can’t explain the link. Income is used in percentage terms, since an extra $1,000 means more to a poor country than to a rich one. p is how likely a link this strong would be if there were really none. Below 0.05 means it is unlikely to be chance. Very small values are written in short form: 1.1e-32 means a decimal point followed by 31 zeros and then 11, so very close to zero. The likely range is where the true figure probably lies, and a range that crosses zero means the link could easily be chance. Countries in the same region tend to resemble each other, so the third figure allows for that, which gives a fairer p. The standard error is the typical size of the error in r. Finally, testing this many pairs means some will look strong by luck alone. A q below 0.05 means this link is unlikely to be one of those.

Electricity use per person · kWh per personlink with income +0.93 · proxy
Frequent prayer · % of respondentslink with income -0.68 · high

Both of these rise and fall closely with national income, so a strong link between them before adjusting was close to certain. Read the adjusted figure, not the first one.

“Link with income” is how closely each measure tracks GDP per person across countries, from −1 to +1.

Every country as a dot

Electricity use per person · kWh per person →Frequent prayer · % of respondents →73.116,0900.838%98.4%Argentina: 3,543 kWh per person, 54% of respondentsArmenia: 2,757 kWh per person, 71.7% of respondentsAustralia: 10,615 kWh per person, 28.6% of respondentsAzerbaijan: 2,613 kWh per person, 17.9% of respondentsBangladesh: 672 kWh per person, 78% of respondentsBelarus: 5,054 kWh per person, 27.4% of respondentsBolivia: 1,083 kWh per person, 82.7% of respondentsBrazil: 3,581 kWh per person, 77.4% of respondentsCanada: 16,090 kWh per person, 35.5% of respondentsChile: 4,456 kWh per person, 37.4% of respondentsChina: 7,460 kWh per person, 0.838% of respondentsColombia: 1,715 kWh per person, 87.9% of respondentsCyprus: 4,311 kWh per person, 69.4% of respondentsCzechia: 6,413 kWh per person, 13.8% of respondentsGermany: 6,188 kWh per person, 30.2% of respondentsAlgeria: 2,005 kWh per person, 81.8% of respondentsEcuador: 2,003 kWh per person, 82.9% of respondentsEgypt, Arab Rep.: 2,064 kWh per person, 96.6% of respondentsSpain: 5,744 kWh per person, 20.2% of respondentsEstonia: 6,948 kWh per person, 12.4% of respondentsEthiopia: 229 kWh per person, 94.9% of respondentsUnited Kingdom: 4,621 kWh per person, 24.1% of respondentsGeorgia: 3,862 kWh per person, 60.6% of respondentsGhana: 634 kWh per person, 95.5% of respondentsGreece: 5,590 kWh per person, 66.4% of respondentsGuatemala: 888 kWh per person, 73.2% of respondentsHong Kong SAR, China: 6,583 kWh per person, 18.6% of respondentsHaiti: 73.1 kWh per person, 95.4% of respondentsIndonesia: 1,314 kWh per person, 95.3% of respondentsIndia: 1,423 kWh per person, 68.4% of respondentsIran, Islamic Rep.: 4,281 kWh per person, 80.9% of respondentsIraq: 3,406 kWh per person, 84.1% of respondentsJordan: 2,054 kWh per person, 86.9% of respondentsJapan: 8,366 kWh per person, 25% of respondentsKazakhstan: 6,050 kWh per person, 35.2% of respondentsKenya: 271 kWh per person, 93.3% of respondentsKyrgyz Republic: 2,647 kWh per person, 68.3% of respondentsKorea, Rep.: 12,090 kWh per person, 19% of respondentsLebanon: 920 kWh per person, 80.9% of respondentsLibya: 4,686 kWh per person, 97.6% of respondentsMacao SAR, China: 8,719 kWh per person, 15.8% of respondentsMorocco: 1,255 kWh per person, 80.9% of respondentsMaldives: 1,610 kWh per person, 93.5% of respondentsMexico: 2,703 kWh per person, 71.9% of respondentsMyanmar: 402 kWh per person, 83.3% of respondentsMongolia: 3,528 kWh per person, 17.8% of respondentsMalaysia: 5,556 kWh per person, 79.7% of respondentsNigeria: 165 kWh per person, 98.4% of respondentsNicaragua: 784 kWh per person, 76.3% of respondentsNetherlands: 6,601 kWh per person, 23% of respondentsNew Zealand: 8,252 kWh per person, 29.6% of respondentsPakistan: 766 kWh per person, 89.8% of respondentsPeru: 1,749 kWh per person, 66.6% of respondentsPhilippines: 1,054 kWh per person, 92.4% of respondentsPoland: 4,570 kWh per person, 63.2% of respondentsPuerto Rico (US): 6,265 kWh per person, 85.7% of respondentsWest Bank and Gaza: 1,454 kWh per person, 90.5% of respondentsRomania: 2,876 kWh per person, 65.2% of respondentsRussian Federation: 8,168 kWh per person, 27% of respondentsRwanda: 85.6 kWh per person, 73.7% of respondentsSingapore: 10,295 kWh per person, 53.1% of respondentsSerbia: 5,591 kWh per person, 28.7% of respondentsSlovak Republic: 4,886 kWh per person, 41.5% of respondentsSlovenia: 6,759 kWh per person, 22.5% of respondentsSweden: 12,866 kWh per person, 18.3% of respondentsThailand: 3,143 kWh per person, 41.4% of respondentsTajikistan: 1,805 kWh per person, 67.6% of respondentsTrinidad and Tobago: 6,334 kWh per person, 96.8% of respondentsTunisia: 2,016 kWh per person, 76.5% of respondentsTurkiye: 4,014 kWh per person, 71% of respondentsUkraine: 2,719 kWh per person, 39% of respondentsUruguay: 4,358 kWh per person, 40.6% of respondentsUnited States: 13,061 kWh per person, 62.3% of respondentsUzbekistan: 2,419 kWh per person, 72.6% of respondentsViet Nam: 3,087 kWh per person, 11.6% of respondentsSouth Africa: 3,658 kWh per person, 73.6% of respondentsZimbabwe: 727 kWh per person, 94.2% of respondentsAZECANETHHTIKORMNGNGASWETTOUSAVNM

best-fit line line after adjusting

Four ways to measure the link

MethodrpCountries
Standard (Pearson), not adjusted-0.6355.6e-1077
By rank (Spearman), not adjusted-0.6991.6e-1277
Standard (Pearson), adjusted for national income-0.2360.04077
By rank (Spearman), adjusted for national income-0.2660.02077

The rank version uses only each country’s place in line, from lowest to highest, so a few extreme countries count for less. The adjusted and unadjusted versions use the same 77 countries: those that report both measures and GDP per person. So the gap between them comes from the adjustment, not from a change in which countries are counted. Drop in the size of r after adjusting: +0.399 (a minus sign means it grew).

How solid is it?

Leaving out one country at a time, r ranges from -0.299 (without USA) to -0.201 (without CHN). The bar above shows that range on a scale from −1 to +1, with the solid line at the full result. The single country that moves r most: USA (-0.063).

Fragile: this link may not hold up.
  • direction is not consistent across regions

Within each region

Countries are not separate, unrelated cases, and neighbors share a lot. A link that holds inside each region is far more believable than one that shows up only when comparing regions.

nr
East Asia & Pacific15-0.39
Europe & Central Asia25-0.44
Latin America & Caribbean14+0.34

By income third

If the link shows up only in the richest third of countries, it is a feature of rich countries, not a general pattern.

nr
Poorest third26-0.07
Middle third25-0.42
Richest third26-0.22

By largest religious group

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
Christians40-0.20
Muslims22-0.20

By last european coloniser

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
Never a European colony15-0.34
Spain12-0.66
United Kingdom22-0.49

Without outliers (countries far outside the middle half of countries on either measure, by more than one and a half times the width of that middle half): r = -0.348 after dropping 3 countries.

Two series, one country

Both measures over the years for one country you pick. The two charts are stacked so they share only the years along the bottom.

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Over time, within countries

Everything above compares countries with each other at one moment. This section compares each country only with itself over 0years. So a link here can’t come from anything about a country that stays the same, such as its history, geography, institutions or culture.

Not enough history inside each country to look at this over time. That needs countries measured for several years in a row, and at least one of these measures is measured too rarely.

The data


kWh per person
% of respondents		Years
Canada CAN16,09035.5%2025, 2022
United States USA13,06162.3%2025, 2022
Sweden SWE12,86618.3%2025, 2014
Korea, Rep. KOR12,09019%2025, 2022
Australia AUS10,61528.6%2025, 2022
Singapore SGP10,29553.1%2025, 2022
Macao SAR, China MAC8,71915.8%2024, 2022
Japan JPN8,36625%2025, 2022
New Zealand NZL8,25229.6%2025, 2022
Russian Federation RUS8,16827%2025, 2022
China CHN7,4600.838%2025, 2022
Estonia EST6,94812.4%2025, 2014
Slovenia SVN6,75922.5%2025, 2014
Netherlands NLD6,60123%2025, 2022
Hong Kong SAR, China HKG6,58318.6%2024, 2022

Ember, Yearly Electricity Data; population from Our World in Data, with processing by Our World in Data
Haerpfer, C. et al., World Values Survey; EVS, European Values Study

Sources

Electricity use per person

Electricity demand per person (kWh)

Ember · via Our World in Data · CC BY 4.0 · updated annual

All the electricity a country uses in a year, divided by its population, in kilowatt-hours (kWh). One kWh runs a 100-watt bulb for ten hours. It counts the power made at home plus imports, minus exports, including the power lost in wires along the way. So it is a little higher than "consumption" figures that leave those losses out. Use per person ranges from under 100 kWh a year in parts of Africa to over 50,000 in Iceland, where aluminium smelters use most of it, so a few industries can set a small country's figure. It rises steeply with income, and is measured in percentage terms (on a log scale) where it is used for adjusting. No "better" direction is set: more electricity can mean more comfort and industry, or more waste.

Frequent prayer

Share praying at least several times a week

World Values Survey Association and European Values Study · via Our World in Data · Free for non-commercial use with attribution · updated irregular (survey waves, roughly every 5 years)

Private practice. Attendance is public practice, and importance is belief. The three can differ: a country can pray often and attend rarely. Asked only from the 2014 wave on, so it covers about eighty countries. No "better" direction is set, for the same reason as attendance.

How this was computed

Data used: most recent value in 2010-2025; values come from 2014–2025. To adjust for income, each measure is first predicted from GDP per person (in percentage terms, on a log scale) with a straight-line fit. Only what is left over is then compared. This is called a partial correlation. The line is drawn the standard way (ordinary least squares), which picks the line that comes closest to all the countries at once. The error margins allow for countries in the same region resembling each other, using 7 World Bank regions. The q-value corrects for testing all 13,797 pairs at once, using the Benjamini–Hochberg method. Underlying data last updated DYB 2024. How the country data works · explore Electricity use per person and Frequent prayer

This page shows that two measures go together. It does not show that Electricity use per person changes Frequent prayer, or the reverse. These figures also describe countries, not individual people. See the ecological fallacy.

More links with Electricity use per person or Frequent prayer